


Sweeter Than Expected

by inkshaming



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Accidental Sugar Daddy Levi, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, College Student Eren Yeager, Fluff, M/M, thigh worship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-16
Updated: 2016-07-07
Packaged: 2018-05-07 00:25:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5436536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkshaming/pseuds/inkshaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Though he had the best of intentions, Levi finds himself out of his depth when it comes to expressing his new-found affection for a college student who's a little down on his luck. He’s about to find out that, when it comes to Eren, there’s really no such thing as ‘too sweet.’</p><p>An Accidental Sugar-Daddy AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. No Trouble at All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TaneKore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaneKore/gifts).



Snow crunched beneath Levi’s boots as Mikasa led him up the stairs to her apartment, her gloved hand knocking trails of powder over the edge and onto the ground below.

“Thanks again so much for doing this, Levi, seriously,” she said, stepping carefully as she climbed. The stress that had colored her voice so urgently when she had called him on his way from work still lingered, though now she just seemed weary. Levi quietly hoped that the vacation would do his cousin some good. 

“I know I have a roommate,” she continued, “but with him as busy as he is, I’m just worried about if the pipes freeze or something, plus the plants… It’s just a load off my plate to know there’s someone with a functioning brain around here.”

“It’s no problem – happy to help. When’s your flight?”

“In four hours,” Mikasa sighed, jamming the key into the lock and shoving the door open. “But I have to get there two hours early to check in and get through security – you know how O’Hare gets – and I’ve been so swamped with finals that I haven’t had the chance to pack.”

The apartment was small – even by Chicago standards – but homey, with photographs of friends and family nestled in mismatched frames in cheerful colors. The entry opened up into a kitchen area that was neat and well lit, and from there, a living room that was… decidedly less so.

The living room was dark and sparsely furnished, the tiny space providing only enough room for a small couch and an undone futon, a few tables and a cabinet where the television might have gone, had there been one. As it was, every available flat surface was cluttered with stacks of study materials – text books and reference books and packets and precariously stacked mugs. And there, at the desk in the far corner, lay a distinctly rumpled pile of…

Levi squinted in the dim light. “Is that a _person?”_

Mikasa looked up. “Oh yeah, that’s Eren, my roommate,” she answered, shrugging out of her coat and her hoodie while searching for something in the closet in the entryway. “You’ve met before, haven’t you? He and Armin have been over for Christmas at least once. Here, can you grab these?” she added once she found what she needed. Duffle-bags.

Levi cast a worried look at the young man slumped over the desk in the far corner of the room, his form silhouetted by the dim light of the computer screen that had long fallen asleep – just like its owner, apparently. He waited to make sure Eren was still breathing – he was – before following Mikasa to her room, empty duffle-bags in hand.

“Is he always like that?” Levi asked, brushing the dust off the duffle-bags and laying them neatly on the floor as Mikasa started rifling through her closet.

“Hah, not really, no,” Mikasa chuckled. “Usually he’s a lot livelier – it’s just finals week for him too. Or finals month, rather. He’s been working on some of these papers since October, feels like.”

Levi grunted. Law school had been like that. He could remember his own final exams, and the memories held none of the nostalgic fondness some of his peers seemed to have for their days at university. In fact, many of his semesters ended a lot like this – holed away in a study room for hours on end, running on caffeine and thinly-veiled desperation. 

Though he never got _this_ bad, he thought to himself.

“But he’s taking something like twenty credits this semester,” Mikasa continued, tossing a couple pairs of jeans his way, “so I can’t really say I’m surprised.”

 _Twenty credits?_ The pace of Levi’s folding faltered. “Why so many?”

“He’s stubborn,” she replied with a laugh. “His dad wanted him to study engineering at Notre Dame. He got the scholarship for it too – full ride, four years in the engineering program.”

Levi whistled softly. One of his best friends from high school went to Notre Dame for engineering, and she was _still_ paying her student loans – though with Isabel’s engineer’s salary, it wouldn’t be long now.

“Eren had other plans though,” she continued. Every now and again, she plucked a shirt or a pair of slacks from a hanger and then passed them to Levi, to be folded and neatly stacked with quick, deft hands. “Said he wanted to make a personal difference. Touch people’s lives. Said he wanted to study developmental psychology and help young people in crises… which was all well and good, but it wasn’t engineering.”

She sighed, turning from her closet to the dresser to pick through carefully folded blouses. “So he decided to pay for college on his own. He moved out, got a job downtown, and he’s been taking night classes over at Oakton CC, saving what he can.”

“And he’s trying to get it over with now?” Levi mused. Working so many hours while still a student… Levi shook his head.

“Actually,” Mikasa answered, “no.”

Levi looked up at her, but Mikasa had her back to him, taking the stacks of clothes Levi had folded and placing them carefully into her duffle-bag.

“Eren applied to Northwestern,” she murmured, and Levi could hear the smile in her voice. The pride. “He starts in January. So he’s trying to take as many credits as he can right now so he can pick up a second major, but as usual…”

From somewhere in the living room, Levi heard a loud snore. Mikasa smiled warmly.

“He may have bitten off a little more than he could handle, and now he’s just chewing like hell.” 

The rest of the packing went quickly, and between the two of them, Mikasa was ready to go in under an hour. The weather in San Diego was nice, she insisted, much nicer than Chicago, so she could afford to pack light for her trip to see her parents for Christmas.

Levi wasn’t entirely sure that two full duffle-bags and a carry-on backpack counted as _light_ , per se, but what did he know.

“Are you sure you don’t need a ride?” Levi asked as he set the bags by the door, careful not to make too much noise. Eren was still fast asleep in the living room, his nose smashed in a textbook that was bound to be a little soggier tomorrow morning. “It’s not too far out of the way.”

Mikasa smiled, leaning against the doorway as Levi stepped out into the cold. “No, it’s fine – Armin is on his way. He’s flying to Germany to visit his grandfather, so we scheduled our flights for the same day. I made sure I had a way to the airport, no worries.”

“Alright then,” Levi replied, reassured. “I’ve got the key. Just call me if you need anything.”

“Will do.” The door closed with a quiet click.

He was almost to the bottom of the stairs when he heard the door open again.

“Hey, Levi!” Mikasa called. 

Levi turned to see his cousin peering out from the doorway, worry tinging the sheepish look on her face.

“If it’s not too much trouble… could you come check in on Eren every once in a while? I’m a little…” Her words trailed off meaningfully. “Just make sure he hasn’t ended up buried under a pile of textbooks or something,” she finished. “At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Levi nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.”

 

~~~

 

He wasn’t entirely sure what it was – a feeling of foreboding, maybe, or a nagging sense of guilt – but something had Levi pulling his Mercedes into the parking lot of the Rose Wall Apartment complex the very next morning, just before he meant to head in to work. 

If he was being honest with himself, it was definitely a lingering concern for Mikasa’s roommate. Levi was supposed to be the emergency contact while Mikasa was away, after all. Someone to turn to if the heating cut out or the sink flooded or the pipes froze, or, as Mikasa had stressed, if Eren got himself hurt. Damn fine contact he’d be if his cousin came back to a corpse. He shuddered.

It was silly of him, really. Eren was in his twenties – surely college students were making independent, mature life-decisions by that point?

_“Make sure he hasn’t ended up buried under a pile of textbooks or something.”_

“Ah, hell,” Levi muttered, letting his car door slam shut. The words rose up as puffs of mist in icy morning air. If he was a little late to work, so be it. 

He felt a little more justified, if not a little more worried, when he let himself in and found the apartment in shambles.

It could have been a completely different place, Levi thought to himself in shock, wondering for a moment if he should check if he was on the right floor. But no – there were the photographs, in the same mismatched frames, and there was a sticky-note on the wall in his cousin’s tight handwriting.

 _“Whenever you pass this note, drink water,”_ the note read. _“Also, you need food. And please, for the love of all things holy, SHOWER.”_

Levi suppressed a shiver, and though it was mid-December in Evanston, Illinois, it had nothing to do with the cold.

He was beginning to regret accepting Mikasa’s request to ‘house-sit.’

The kitchen, which had been clean, for the most part, the day before, looked like a tornado had swept through. There was a stack of dirty dishes in the sink _– at least they weren’t all over the textbooks anymore,_ Levi grumbled to himself – and half-full pans of who-knows-what sat on the stove, untouched for what appeared to be several hours. There were sauce stains on the tile backsplash. Levi cringed.

The chaos hadn’t spared the living room either, but the tiny space had been trashed by a different sort of storm, one that left an even coat of white all over every surface, an endless sea of…

“My p-paper…” someone muttered. The words were followed by a snort, and then another heavy snore.

Eren lay sprawled on the couch, fast-asleep where he lay, half covered in a blanket of now-crumpled papers and a whole arsenal of red pens. His fingers twitched erratically as he dreamed, sleep-typing presumably. If all these pages belonged to his term papers, Levi couldn’t blame him.

…If it really was him. It was hard to identify someone whose face was half-masked by the book they had been reading. Though he tried to stop it short, Levi chuckled, amused.

It seemed, as far as Eren was concerned, that the word ‘stubborn’ would never even begin to cover it.

Levi picked his way carefully through the living room, trying his best to avoid stepping on the papers laid out across the floor. Though it had seemed disorganized at first, Levi could now see the method to the young man’s apparent madness. Each of the papers had been published in full and laid out to be proofread, the crisp print marred with red ink and highlighter commentary like, _“rephrase,”_ and _“fix this,”_ and Levi’s personal favorite, _“were you even awake when you wrote this? Dumbass.”_

In all fairness to Eren, he probably hadn’t been.

A few of the pages weren’t term-papers at all. Some were rubrics, their contents circled and underlined and scribbled with notes that Levi knew would eventually become discussion points and theses. Some were transcripts, laden with educational jargon and rows upon rows of all the classes Eren had taken over the years, and his grades – A’s and B’s.

And one – the only one on the otherwise barren coffee table near the young man’s feet – was printed on a single sheet of crisp white paper, the heading printed in what could only be that signature shade of purple: the acceptance letter from Northwestern University.

 _“Dear Mr. Jaeger,”_ Levi read silently. _“on behalf of the Admissions Board here at Northwestern University, it is my pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted…”_

He skimmed a little further.

_“Because of your academic record, you qualify for both our financial aid and our merit scholarship, resulting in a total of…”_

Levi paused when he got to the figure at the bottom, his eyes widening as he did the mental math. Full tuition, for two years. Enough to finish his degree – both of them, if he worked for it. And Levi had no doubt that he would, if the current state of the apartment was anything to go by.

“Not bad, kid,” Levi whispered. Not bad at all.

As if in response, Eren snuffled in his sleep, making Levi jump.

 _Right,_ Levi thought to himself. _Just checking in. Making sure he hadn’t been buried alive or some shit._

Alive and looking at a bright future, it seemed like. Good for him. Before turning to leave, and maybe, just _maybe_ doing something about the kitchen, Levi reached out to pull the book away from Eren’s hands, hoping saving at least one literary work from the young man’s odd sleeping habits. Smiling quietly to himself, Levi slipped a pen between the pages of Stephen King’s _On Writing_ , and set the book down on the coffee table.

…and finally got a look at Eren Jaeger’s face.

“Ho-ly-shit,” Levi muttered, letting the syllables drag out as he took a sudden step back.

Mikasa never mentioned that her roommate was cute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More on that "accidental" sugar daddy - and actual sugar - later, I promise. :') the prompt just demanded some sort of... I don't know, development first.


	2. Is It Really a Date If It Was On Accident?

Whenever Eren slept on the couch, he had odd dreams.

He’s sure that he could easily research a decent, scientifically probable explanation for why this was, given the motivation and a few cups of coffee, but right now it just didn’t seem important. Instead, he dozed on the couch, chasing the lingering traces of the dream he’d been having – something about dwarves inspecting his kitchen, searching for gold and precious metals and cursing under their breath when something didn’t sparkle.

He woke more fully when the dream started to smell like bacon.

Which he found somewhat weird, considering that the last he’d checked, the only thing left in the fridge had been the other half of the burrito he’d gotten on Thursday… or was it Tuesday? He couldn’t remember – it had been sitting there next to the long-abandoned bottle of mustard for who-knows how long.

Maybe Mikasa had gone grocery shopping.

“Hey Mika,” Eren mumbled, rolling over to stretch and feel around for his glasses, which he remembered putting… _somewhere,_ but the details still escaped him. Or had he left them on…?

He ran a hand up the side of his face, his fingers carding through the coarse bird nest his hair had become during the night. No glasses.

A thought occurred to him.

“Mika,” he said again, louder this time, as he stretched again to blindly search the table. “I thought you had a flight to catch?” _What time was it?_ “Shouldn’t you have left already?”

“She did.”

The voice was not Mikasa’s.

Eren shot to his feet, knocking a shin into the edge of the coffee table and stepping on one of the pages of his psychology thesis, the paper crinkling underfoot as he stood and then groaned, his vision going fuzzy as the blood rushed from his head.

A hand reached out to steady him.

“Oi – take a seat before you crack your head on the coffee table – it’s too early in the morning to deal with cleaning up blood and shit.”

Eren sat.

“You’re not Mikasa,” Eren observed.

The man’s mouth twisted into what might’ve passed for the beginnings of a smile – or a grimace, there were still too many black spots in Eren’s vision to tell.

“No, I’m not,” the man said, waiting for Eren to stop swaying before handing him a pair of thin frames and a steaming mug of something hot. _Coffee?_ He sniffed. _No. Tea. But still caffeinated, probably._ He sank back into the couch with a smile.

“No, you’re not,” Eren agreed, bringing the mug to his lips and drinking deeply. “She would’ve made coffee. And she wouldn’t have added sugar.”

The man scoffed – something about tea not needing sugar – but Eren was still too sleepy to hear. He’d already moved on to other, more pressing questions.

“So… who are you?”

“Her cousin,” the man replied. “Mikasa asked me to drop in from time to time to make sure everything stayed in working order while you finished up your term. And to make sure you were still alive when she got back.”

He started to reach out, seemingly as if for a handshake, and then suddenly thought better of it. His nose wrinkled. “When was the last time you showered?”

Eren thought for a moment, his brow furrowing slightly as he ran his tongue over his teeth and tasted morning breath on the back of his throat. Still not convinced, he sniffed at his shirt and then made a face. “I don’t know,” he replied honestly, trying to string some semblance of time between the all the seemingly endless hours he’d been working on his papers and failing dismally. “Maybe Tuesday… or Monday? What day is it today anyways?”

The man grimaced.

“Go shower,” he said, standing and picking his way gingerly across the paper-strewn floor, anxious to put some space between himself and the end-of-semester-induced smell-fest that was Eren Jaeger. “We can talk afterwards.”

Eren shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

 

~~~

 

Half an hour later, Eren left the bathroom, freshly scrubbed and noticeably less smelly. Steam from the small bathroom clung to him as he wandered into the kitchen, his still-wet hair sticking up in all directions despite all attempts to comb it into submission. By some miracle of caffeine and cognition, he had even remembered he had company long enough to decide to put on a shirt. A clean shirt, even.

At least, it smelled clean.

No sooner had he sat down at the table when a plate materialized in front of him, laden with an omelet and a cup of fruit. Eren stared at it blankly, not sure of what paradise he’d been transported to between waking up and showering.

“I wasn’t sure if you had any dietary restrictions,” the man muttered, taking the seat across from Eren, “but the burrito in the fridge had eggs and bacon in it, so I assumed this would be safe.”

Eren looked from the omelet, to the stranger, and then back to the food.

The man shifted uncomfortably. “If you’re allergic to any of the fruit, it should keep long enough for Mikasa to be able to eat it when she gets back.”

“There’s fruit in the fridge?” Eren asked curiously. When he tried to remember the last time he’d gone grocery shopping, the only thing his mind would bring up was the minutia of speech therapy for children under the age of eight and how it differed from the approaches used for adolescents and adults. He shook his head blearily to clear it. He’d be back at the papers soon enough.

“There is now.”

“…huh,” was Eren’s only reply. The smell of bacon on the frying pan wafted rich and warm throughout the kitchen.

“You can eat, you know,” the man said, “instead of looking like you’re trying to decide whether you’re going to shit or pass out first.”

Eren didn’t need to be told twice.

It was fantastic. He tasted bacon and spinach – an actual, real _vegetable,_ for goodness’ sakes. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a vegetable that wasn’t the dehydrated corn, carrots, and peas that floated around in his ramen. After the first bite, Eren let his eyes drift closed and slowly lowered his fork, sighing happily as he chewed and swallowed.

“Good?”

“You’re amazing,” Eren groaned.

The man snorted, but Eren thought he looked vaguely pleased.

Or maybe he was just constipated. It was surprisingly hard to tell.

“So, stranger,” Eren asked casually, taking a swig of his tea and relishing the taste. Day-old Dunkin’ Donuts coffee had nothing on this. “Do you have a name?”

“Levi.”

It sounded vaguely familiar – a name brought up in passing, maybe, or maybe mentioned around the holidays when people wrote their Christmas letters. Mikasa rarely spoke about her family, but the man looked enough like her to convince Eren – same too-sharp features, same stern dark eyes. Definitely an Ackerman, no doubt about it.

“Eren,” Eren replied between bites. “Nice to meet you, Levi.”

“Even though I’m a stranger cooking you breakfast in your own kitchen?”

Eren simply shrugged. “Weirder things have happened,” he replied. “And it’s a great breakfast. I think the last time I had fruit was the strawberry ice cream I finished for dinner… three days ago, maybe. And I’m not even sure if that counts as a fruit.”

Judging by the look of alarm on Levi’s face, it probably didn’t.

“So, I mean,” Eren continued, “if you’re actually here to break in and rob me blind, and you’ll cook me breakfast in exchange, be my guest. The only thing of value in here is my laptop, and that’s mostly sentimental. Ol’ Delly hasn’t run a proper upgrade since Windows ’98.”

Levi snorted again. Eren was starting to wonder if the man suffered from some sort of diaphragm spasm or if it was supposed to be a laugh.

He decided to go with the latter.

“If you could wait to rob me until after the twentieth, though, that’d be really considerate of you,” he finished, washing his words down with another mouthful of egg and fruit.

“I guess I’ll wait ‘til then,” Levi replied dryly. “Although if you keep on livin’ it up like this, you’ll probably bite the dust long before I come to rob you.”

Eren grinned around a bite of cantaloupe. “If you think this is bad, you should’ve seen me in May. I drank so much coffee I couldn’t stand to look at the stuff for three months afterward.” He paused thoughtfully, peering into his mug for a moment. “This tea’s pretty good though - did you drop by Starbucks or something?”

“Something like that,” Levi muttered after a moment, looking guiltily into his mug.

“Mmm,” Eren hummed knowingly, draining the mug in one fell swoop. “That hits the spot. Normally I’m more of a Quick-Trip coffee kind of guy, since there’s one right on the corner, but ever since I started working on the papers, I just haven’t made it out that far.”

Levi quickly did the mental math and frowned. “You… haven’t left the apartment since you started your term papers?”

“Nope,” Eren replied nonchalantly, popping his lips on the last syllable. He didn’t seem to register Levi’s alarm as he stood to take his dishes to the sink, only pausing long enough to wonder at the startlingly clean kitchen before he continued. “Can’t afford to. I have research papers due in every class – I’ve been working on them nonstop for almost a month now. Kinda shitty, but they’re almost done… speaking of which, I really should get back to editing, if you don’t – “

“Oh no you don’t,” Levi cut in, rising to his feet. “You couldn’t even remember what day it was – you’re in no state to be editing your final papers.”

Eren looked at him, stunned. Levi made a snap decision.

“You’re coming with me.”

 

~~~

 

“You know,” Eren said, gaping at the interior of Levi’s Mercedes with a reverent look, “if you’re kidnapping me, this is a pretty swanky way to do it.”

Levi snorted again – Eren briefly considered expressing concern over the man’s cough. “Robbing, kidnapping… what do you take me for, some sorta thug?”

Eren only shrugged and smiled. “Hey, I don’t judge. You never know when a thug is gonna turn out to have a heart of gold.”

Levi gave Eren an odd look before the younger man continued. “Where are we going anyways?” Eren asked, peering outside curiously. They’d left the busy side streets and Eren’s apartment behind for the avenues of downtown, but as they drove, the world outside them became a little quieter. Soon, the streets were mostly empty, lined with snow-dusted trees and grand old houses that could’ve been taken straight from a postcard, their eaves and sprawling porches frosted with a thin layer of ice. Eren had never been to this area of Evanston before.

The road seemed to run out all at once, the houses suddenly giving way to a copse of small trees, the sidewalks disappearing in the rearview and replaced by an even dusting of snow. The road went from asphalt to gravel to dirt, yet Levi maneuvered the gentle curves with ease, driving carefully to avoid any ice beneath the snow that had fallen overnight.

“Uh, Levi?” Eren asked, his nose almost pressed to the window as he stared in wonder, his breath ghosting thinly over the cold glass. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” he replied.

As he spoke, he turned the corner, and Eren finally _saw._

The road gave way to a frozen pond, its edges bordered by snow-covered trees and frosted stones. Here and there, people skated across the ice in twos and threes, their laughter silent through the glass, but apparent in the color on their rosy cheeks. A few meters away from the cars, a small shack rented skates to visitors.

“We’re going ice skating?” Eren breathed, tearing his gaze from the sight of the pond to look at Levi.

Levi looked away. “Yeah. I mean. Figured it’d be a nice break from all your papers. A friend of mine left some heavy coats and such at my place, so I had them cleaned and they’re in the back…”

But Eren was already moving, unbuckling his seat belt. “Best kidnapping ever,” he laughed, bolting out of the car.

“I’ll get the trunk,” Levi said.

But if Eren had been watching, he might’ve seen Levi smile.

A few minutes later, Eren and Levi made their way towards the ice, bundled in borrowed – though blessedly clean – layers that were too big even for Eren, skates in hand.

“I haven’t been skating in years!” Eren laughed. He already had a high flush to his face, the excitement and the cold air staining his cheeks and the tip of his nose. “How’d you find this place?”

The question caught Levi off guard. He paused, his hands stilling on the laces of his skates as he searched for the right words. “…My mother would take me here, as a child,” he muttered finally, his ears turning slightly pink before he finished, “for my birthday.”

A look of understanding flashed in Eren’s eyes – Levi watched it spark, flickering quietly to life – though what he understood, Levi couldn’t guess. But to his immediate relief, Eren didn’t press. “Sounds like a great gift,” he said simply, tightening the laces of his skates and getting to his feet. Though it had been a long time since he’d last been on the ice, Eren stood firm.

“It was,” Levi agreed.

Eren offered a gloved hand.

Levi took it.

 

~~~

 

They skated until the sun started to set and the afternoon wind took on a bitter chill that even their enthusiasm couldn’t fend off. Shivering but self-satisfied, they piled back into the car and headed back into town.

“That was exactly what I needed,” Eren said excitedly, rubbing his hands together in front of the air vent as Levi set the car’s heater to full-blast in the hopes of warming up. “Holy smokes, I haven’t had that much fun in weeks – it’s so nice to be _moving_ again.”

It took all Levi had to keep his eyes on the road and off of Eren as the younger man bounced in his seat. When he felt heat rise to his cheeks, he blamed it on the exercise from earlier.

“I feel like I could write ten whole pages!” Eren exclaimed.

“Or you could get a shower and a proper night’s rest,” Levi suggested dryly. “Your papers are due on the twentieth?”

Eren nodded.

“Then you still have nine whole days to finish off the writing and the editing and all that shit. You’ve got time, you should take care of yourself. Shower. Sleep. Eat.” _Something._

Eren’s stomach chose that moment to growl loudly.

 _Ah, fuck,_ Levi thought to himself. If he didn’t know any better, this whole day was turning into something that looked a whole lot like a da-

“We should grab something to eat,” Levi suggested hastily, slamming the door on any and all thoughts of a date with the man who sat in the seat next to him peeling off layers of winter wear as he slowly warmed up.

_Fuck._

If Eren thought anything of it, Levi couldn’t tell. “That sounds like a great idea,” Eren said easily, as he pulled the gloves from his hands. “I know a good – oh.”

They’d finally made it back onto the main road so Levi couldn’t spare a glance, but even the tone of Eren’s voice sounded slightly crestfallen.

“I didn’t bring my wallet,” Eren murmured.

“That’s no problem,” Levi replied, keeping his eyes carefully fixed on the road in front of him. “I can pay for you, it wouldn’t be a –“

“No,” Eren said firmly, too quickly. “That’s alright, you don’t have to.”

“Eren, you really should eat,” Levi insisted, recalling the sight of the near-empty fridge and the half eaten, cold burrito he’d found.

“I know I’d just rather…”

_I’d rather pay for myself._

The words hung in the empty air between them, spinning headily in the eddies thrown by the heater as they drove, sheltered from the cold. They were Eren’s words, yes, but also his own at one time; words from a time before the firm, before law school. Words spoken by Levi the undergraduate, refusing his uncle’s dirty money while he ate nothing but rice and beans for two meals a day, scraping every penny left behind by his mother to pay for his education. Something in his chest ached.

_I’d rather pay for myself._

Maybe Levi had more in common with this plucky, headstrong college student than he had originally thought.

“That’s okay,” Levi said quietly. _I respect that._ “…but the offer of a meal still stands.”

Eren looked up at him – Levi could almost feel the weight of his gaze, far too warm and far too brilliant.

_Fuck._

“I mean,” Levi continued, unsure of how to phrase his thoughts in a way that would leave his dignity unscathed, “I have a salmon filet I’ve been meaning to make and there’s too much for one person.”

Something unclenched in Levi’s chest when Eren smiled.

“Salmon sounds good,” Eren said.

They drove in easy conversation, swapping pieces of themselves like children would share small shards of colored glass – shyly, but eager to hold something they never knew could be quite so beautiful. Levi learned that Eren’s first major was in developmental psychology, and his second was in creative writing. Eren learned the names of Levi’s closest friends, and he laughed at the story of how Levi had been dragged into a law firm. It was, in Levi’s opinion, a surprisingly enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, and when the drive came to an end and Levi parked the car in the lot of his apartment building, he found himself admiring the small, smoothed pieces of Eren he never imagined he’d find.

His reflections grew slightly less rosy as he led Eren through the lobby of his apartment building, their footsteps echoing on the cold marble floors as a stark reminder of where they had been this morning and how separate their two worlds seemed to be.

Eren, however, seemed too wrapped in his thoughts to notice. He hummed quietly to himself while the elevator climbed higher, harmonizing with the bell that chimed to announce their arrival on the eleventh floor. Levi’s pulse thrummed nervously, out of time with Eren’s melody as he led Eren down the hall, opened the door, and…

“Woah…” Eren breathed, stepping into the apartment. He walked straight to the wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, peering out over the horizon as the city lights began to flicker to life far below. “This is incredible!” he said, rifling through the inner pocket of his jacket to pull out a small, black leather notebook and a pen – something he must have been carrying all this time without Levi ever noticing. Looking away briefly to thumb through the pages, Eren found where he’d left off last, drew a line, and started writing.

Watching this man scribble in silence, his tongue peeking out from between his lips in concentration, his glasses slipping towards the end of his nose, Levi felt his heart lurch.

 _I… should start dinner. Or something,_ he thought hastily.

But before he turned away, Eren spoke.

“What an amazing view,” Levi heard Eren mutter, almost to himself. “I could spend all day in a place like this, writing my heart out.”

Levi cleared his throat once.

“You… could, you know. If you wanted.”

Eren looked at him and in the fading afternoon light his eyes almost seemed to glow, lit with the colors of the city far below him.

“I’d like that,” he said quietly. “I’d like that a lot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thank you to my lovely friend and patient beta, [ChristmasRivers](http://christmasrivers.tumblr.com), for dealing with my writing process and then helping me clean up the draft when it was finally finished; and to everyone who fought in the word wars that went into writing this chapter in a single day, you are all amazing.
> 
> Next time: Eren deals with a stressful situation and has a smokin'-hot time. ;)
> 
> (and by that, I do not mean the frickle-frackle)


	3. Friends Who Aren’t Doing Anything

“Are you sure you’re okay, Eren?” Mikasa pressed.

“I’m fine," Eren insisted, holding his phone to his ear with his shoulder as he scratched another paragraph from the paper in bright red ink. “You worry too much.”

Mikasa’s sigh rattled through the speaker. “It’s what I do.”

“Well, you shouldn’t,” Eren chuckled. “You’re in San Diego – at least try to relax. Go to the beach. Go for a run. Kiss pretty people.”

“Blegh,” Mikasa groaned.

Eren laughed.

“Seriously, Mika, I’m fine. Everything’s good here. I’m eating, I’m sleeping, and sometimes I even leave the apartment.”

“Amazing,” Mikasa muttered. Eren could almost picture her rolling her eyes. “And Levi hasn’t been too much of a bother?”

“No!” Eren said quickly. _Too quickly?_ He shook the thought from his head started again. “No, Levi’s fine too.”

More than fine, actually. Levi was…

“He gets me into the shower from time to time,” Eren blurted, clumsily recovering his train of thought after he remembered – much to his chagrin – that he was still on the phone.

“I see,” Mikasa replied. Eren couldn’t tell for sure, but it sounded like she was stifling a snicker.

He immediately flushed at the thought. “No – no, not like that! We’re not –”

“Alright, Eren, I’ll leave you two to it,” Mikasa said knowingly. “Be safe.”

_“Mikasa.”_

The call ended.

Eren lowered the phone from his ear with a groan and set it aside on the long stretch of the mahogany conference table, turning back to the pages he had spread out in front of him and trying to recollect his thoughts.

_“We’re not…”_

Eren let out a sigh. Whatever he and Levi had become over the past week or so, it certainly wasn’t _that_. Levi had been astonishingly kind to him, inviting Eren to spend his morning writing in the conference rooms of Levi’s apartment building, giving Eren a clean, sunny space to write and edit to his heart’s content.

...What did that make them, exactly?

He and Levi were the mornings spent watching the sunrise over mugs of hot tea, their bleary silences only broken by the clink of ceramic breakfast dishes on the table’s glassy surface. They were the cheerful buzz of incoming texts and murmured responses of “a friend” when they were asked who inspired their secret smiles. To Eren, Levi was warmth and easy laughter and quiet evenings by the fire, and the days of his December passed in a blur of snow and paper and red ink, of mugs of tea placed beside hands that whirred at the keyboard or scribbled furiously into notebooks, weaving together ideas and stories from the words he plucked out of thin air.

Friends, then. They were friends.

Friends who weren’t _doing_ anything.

Eren groaned. “The only one not doing anything around here is you,” he chided himself, unwillingly shooing rather distracting images from his head. “Focus.”

Focus.

Focus proved elusive with Levi in his thoughts. Heated visions of what they _could_ be doing and of all the places Eren wouldn’t mind putting those strong hands and toned thighs - sleeker than any lawyer’s had a right to be - floated dizzily through his head. His concentration drifted, the long mahogany table and floor-to-ceiling windows of the conference room melting away to somewhere a little more private… 

The door swung open.

Eren jumped, his pen skittering across the table as he snapped out of his fantasies, startled by the sudden appearance of one of the front desk staff.

“Sorry honey, didn’t mean to scare you,” the woman said kindly, walking up to Eren with a plate in hand. She set the plate down on the one end of the table that wasn’t layered in papers. “This was left over from the catering event that just finished – thought you could use a snack.”

 _A snack and a cold shower,_ Eren thought with a flush. “That looks amazing, Anka,” he said, hoping his voice didn’t sound as hoarse as he thought it did. “Thank you so much.”

“Not at all,” Anka replied. “We’re all rootin’ for you, you know. Mr. Ackerman told us all about the papers you’re working on!”

There was no hiding the heat that spilled across Eren’s cheeks at the idea. “Did he?”

“He did! And he said you write stories too, said he thinks you’ll be a published author one day.” 

“That’s really kind of him,” Eren murmured, smiling to himself as Anka turned and left.

 _Just friends,_ he chanted. _Just friends._

~~~

For what felt like the fiftieth time that day, Levi glanced up at the clock with a growing sense of frustration.

3:47 PM.

Levi groaned, resisting the urge to pull out his phone and make sure that no, the clock hands were not turning slower than usual, that the work days were not running long. In all the years he had worked at the law firm, he’d never had this problem.

But then, he had never really had something - someone - to look forward to returning to.

“You’re looking antsy,” Hanji noted, peering into Levi’s office with what he was sure was a horribly devious grin. “Hot date tonight?”

“No,” Levi replied. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“That’s not what your cologne says,” Mike countered quietly.

Levi turned, giving his coworker a sharp look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Mike smirked, never looking up from his computer. “It means you smell like Walmart’s 2-In-1 Anti-Dandruff Tea-tree Oil Shampoo for Men.”

_Eren’s shampoo._

“How the _hell_ do you even-?” Levi began. Then he thought better of it. “You know what? Never mind.” He checked the clock. 3:54 PM. “It’s four o’clock,” Levi grit out. “I’m leaving.”

“Have fun, Levi!” Hanji cackled after him. “Be sure to tell us how it goes!”

“Don’t hold your breath,” Levi muttered. As he waited for the valet, he pulled out his phone and shot Eren a text.

 **Levi [4:01:09 PM]:** On my way.

 **Eren [4:03:14 PM]:** Cool, i’ll finish up then

 **Eren [4:04:43 PM]:** See you soon!

Only the valet saw Levi’s smile.

~~~

It was in the afternoons that Levi _really_ made good on his word to Eren.

Eren loved Levi’s apartment. Though he’d been writing all day, it wasn’t long before he’d settle on the floor in front of the windows, notebook and pencil in hand, and Levi would watch as he scribbled away, chasing stories of far off places and distant worlds as the younger man’s glasses slipped further and further down the bridge of his nose.

It was a good arrangement, Levi thought as he slowly stirred the soup on the stove, readying to serve it into two bowls as Eren chattered merrily about the new storyline idea he’d come up with during editing that day.

“I was thinking some sort of post-apocalypse story,” Eren continued. He spoke as he moved around Levi’s small kitchen table, setting the napkins and the silverware out for dinner. “It could have monsters – huge, nearly unbeatable monsters – and the people have been driven behind these massive walls.”

“Sounds like the kind of story I wouldn’t want to find myself in,” Levi replied, ladling the soup into bowls and setting them on the table.

Eren looked at him thoughtfully. “I don’t know,” he said. “I feel like you’d handle yourself pretty well.”

Levi snorted. “The only stories I’d be interested in being in are stories that involve me running a tea-shop somewhere where it doesn’t snow.”

The thought made Eren laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.

The thought that he would stuck in Levi’s mind for the rest of the night. When he finally fell asleep, he dreamt of writers and the sea. He hoped he wouldn’t forget it by morning – it seemed like an idea Eren would like.

~~~

But Eren wasn’t there the next morning. When Levi stepped into the lobby, feeling pleased that he had remembered his dream, he was surprised to find it empty. Eren was nowhere in sight.

 _He could be working already,_ Levi mused to himself.

But the conference room was abandoned. 

The front desk staff knew Eren well now, by this point, Levi mused. He was probably just late, and they’d let him in when he arrived. With that in mind, Levi shot Eren a text and left for work.

 **Levi [7:21:23 AM]:** Did you finish?

A few minutes later, his phone vibrated, rattling in the cup-holder as the screen lit up.

 **Eren [7:29:51 AM]:** oh I’m finished alright

Levi breathed a sigh. His worry had been unfounded then.

 **Levi [7:34:16 AM]:** That’s good. Congratulations.

 **Eren [7:37:14 AM]:** no, not finished-finished

 **Eren [7:38:51 AM]:** I’m ‘I-will-never-come-back-from-this’-finished

Levi frowned. He waited until he got to the next stoplight before tapping out his reply.

 **Levi [7:45:44 AM]:** Mind if I drop by after work?

 **Eren [12:06:32 PM]:** sure

~~~

When Levi arrived at Eren’s building - letting himself in after receiving a muted “You can just open the door” from somewhere inside - everything but the kitchen was dark.

“Eren?” Levi called.

“I’m here,” Eren replied. His voice was closer, closer than Levi expected. He took a few steps towards the living room before something in the kitchen caught his eye.

Eren’s laptop was on the table, sitting in a warped and melted heap. Scorch marks trailed across the keyboard, the screen, and along the wooden tabletop, all of which now looked ruined beyond repair. Even the wall hadn’t escaped the damage. The fire extinguisher lay on its side on the floor.

“Holy shit,” Levi breathed.

“I was looking over my psych paper when I heard a weird pop,” Eren muttered, his voice oddly muffled though he was just in the next room. “I didn’t think anything of it until I smelled smoke.”

“When did this happen?” Levi asked.

“Sometime around four o’clock this morning,” Eren replied.

Levi followed the sound of Eren’s voice back to the living room, where he found Eren laying on the couch, completely buried in blankets. “And you’ve just been sitting here since then?”

The covers snapped back. “Of course not,” Eren hissed, fixing Levi with an angry stare. “I spent all day at the campus IT center and then on the phone with Dell, only to find out that the laptop is beyond warranty and the hard drive is fried beyond repair.”

“Out of warranty?” Levi prompted.

Eren visibly deflated. “…yeah,” he finally replied, staring at his hands. “I had to replace the battery last year – it wasn’t keeping a charge. But I didn’t have that kind of money so… I just ordered a cheap one online. Guess I know why it came so cheap.”

“So what are you going to do?”

The thin wall shivered slightly as Eren let his head fall against it. “I have about two hundred pages due in three days,” Eren said harshly. “Even if I ask for an extension, the grades won’t arrive to Northwestern with enough time for them to certify my eligibility for my scholarship on time – and if I don’t get certified, I don’t get the scholarship. I can’t even afford to pay their late fees, Levi, never mind their tuition. There’s nothing I can do.”

“Bullshit.”

Eren looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Excuse me?”

“I said bullshit,” Levi replied. “There’s no way you can make it this far to have things turn to shit now.”

“Yeah, well, I did, okay?” Eren spit, throwing his hands like a fire might throw sparks. “Sometimes it happens. Not all of us can sit pretty on our lawyer paychecks and our Mercedes leather seats.”

The expression that frosted over Levi’s face could make a Chicago winter’s night feel downright balmy. 

“Well if that’s what you want to think, _fine,”_ he hissed.

And without another word, Levi turned and left.

~~~

It was still dark when Eren woke to the sound of someone knocking at the door. He sat up blearily, rolling the kinks out of his neck as he felt around blindly for his phone underneath the blankets. 

5:45 AM.

“What the actual _fuck,”_ Eren grumbled, pulling himself to his feet with a grimace and muttering vicious curses as he staggered to the door. “Do they even know what fucking time it is for the love of…” 

He gave the door an angry tug and nearly choked on his words when he saw who was waiting there for him.

_“...Levi?”_

Levi stood at the top of the stairs, bundled in a heavy coat and shivering in the cold. Snow had gathered along the top of his hat and in the loops of his scarf, which wrapped over his mouth and nose like a mask. He looked like he’d been knocking for a while.

“Oh thank fuck,” he hissed, teeth chattering as a shudder passed through him. “Are you gonna let me in or are you just gonna stand there?”

Blinking in confusion, Eren let him inside.

“Ugh…” Levi shivered, setting the bag in his hands on the kitchen table and brushing the snow from his head and shoulders. “I fucking hate snow,” he grumbled, almost to himself. “Fucking disgusting.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to help you finish your papers.”

Eren blinked slowly, then rubbed his eyes and blinked again, suddenly not all too sure if he was really awake or if he was still dreaming. “...But we fought.”

Levi arched a thin eyebrow. “You still have papers to finish, don’t you?”

“And even if I spent the next few days staying at the library from open to close, even with the drafts I have printed, I _still_ wouldn’t finish those pa-”

Eren’s words cut off as Levi picked up the bag he’d brought and wordlessly pressed it into Eren’s hands.

“What’s this?” Eren asked, taken aback. 

“It’s a laptop,” Levi replied quietly, knitting his hands around the ends of his scarf. “And an external hard-drive and a spare battery. I went out and bought it last night, but I figured you needed the sleep so I thought I'd... drop by this morning.”

Eren stared. Hard. The weight of what he was holding didn’t feel quite real - this whole moment didn’t feel real. The cold pre-dawn streetlight and the snow falling outside made the moment seem oddly surreal, as if he would soon wake from a dream and everything would disappear.

“Allllllright,” Eren said finally. “I’m not awake enough for this. I need caffeine.”

And he walked off to the kitchen.

A split second later he called out, “Want anything?”

Levi sighed. “Tea please, if you have it.” 

Eren did. Levi bought it for him.

“Cool. Can do.”

Shaking his head, Levi followed Eren into the kitchen.

~~~

Levi sat at the tiny kitchen table, watching Eren work in silence. The younger man chewed his lips as he moved about the kitchen - finding the tea kettle, starting the brew - his brows furrowed heavily in thought. The new computer, Levi noticed, had been carefully placed to cover the scorch-marks on the tabletop and hide some of the singed paint on the wall. The old laptop was nowhere in sight.

“I… I didn’t mean what I said last night,” Eren murmured, pulling two mugs down from the cabinet.

“I know,” Levi replied.

“I mean, you clearly do very well for yourself and your circumstances are different than mine,” Eren continued.

“Eren, I...”

“But that doesn’t make you a bad person...”

“Eren-”

“And I shouldn’t have let my frustration for everything get the best of me, because you’re actually a really nice person and I felt like shit when you left like that and-”

 _“Eren,”_ Levi cut in firmly, grabbing the younger man’s shoulders. 

Eren stared. The kettle began to whistle.

“Growing up, I had it rough,” Levi said. Eren moved to take the kettle off the stove, and in the sudden quiet, Levi used the turn of Eren’s back to pretend that he was saying something that didn’t really matter. Somehow, it made it easier to think about. Easier to say. “Like, one room apartment by the train tracks on the wrong side of Chicago, rough. I didn’t always live like this - shit, I never thought in a million years that I would ever have this.” 

He ran a hand through his hair, expecting grease instead of neat clean strands, remembering cold canned soup and chilly evenings spent with his mother under the blankets, making up the stories in the books they couldn’t see when the lights went out. His eyes fixed at nothing when he spoke again. “But my ma and I, we did okay.”

And then Eren was back, taking the seat across the table from him, setting the mug in front of Levi with no sugar and no cream, and all at once _everything_ mattered.

“My mother died when I was twelve,” Levi muttered. 

There was a physical pressure to the silence that settled between them, weighing on their bodies like the calm before a storm. Outside, Levi could hear the wind against the rafters. The building creaked.

“Fifteen,” Eren said.

Levi looked up. “…What?”

“Me too, I mean,” Eren said softly. “When I was fifteen.”

“Oh.”

There was only so much you could say to that. Words, Levi noticed, could never capture the sudden ache that filled a heart at the thought of that sort of loss.

“Go on,” Eren whispered.

“Right.” Levi swallowed, his train of thought suddenly, totally, torn apart. “What I meant was… it wasn’t easy for me either. I didn’t have a nice apartment or some fancy car – I had a shitty uncle and a couple part-time jobs and nowhere to go.”

“So what you’re saying is, you had it worse,” Eren muttered.

“No,” Levi said, “I’m saying I get it. And you – you have so much going for you. You have passion, Eren, you have…”

Fire. Eren had the sort of fire that could make even the brightest of stars seem dim. Eren burned with the sort of light that could make a tiny apartment on the outskirts of a cold Chicago seem like the center of the entire fucking solar system.

Levi shook his head. “And you shouldn’t to let some shitty luck get in the way of that,” he finished lamely.

Eren paused for a moment, considering.

“...So you bought me a laptop,” Eren repeated.

“Yes, I bought you a laptop,” Levi huffed, feeling suddenly uneasy about the whole thing.

“I can’t pay you for this,” Eren said quietly.

“I’m not asking you to,” Levi replied.

“Then… why?”

Levi shifted. “You need it, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“Is this okay?”

“...Yeah,” Eren said again.

“Alright then,” Levi said, clearing his throat. “Let’s get to work.”

Eren froze for a moment, then looked questioningly at Levi. “Let… us?”

“Well… yeah,” Levi answered. “I figured you could use the help.”

~~~

Truth be told, Eren needed all the help he could get.

The conference room was a flurry of activity. Eren paced feverishly around the long conference table, a stack of papers in one hand and a tall thermos of black tea in the other. The table itself looked like it had been left outside overnight - except for the streaks of yellow highlighter and red ink here and there, it looked like the table was covered in snow as Eren lay down page after page of his papers for re-writing. His phone rested in the crook of his shoulder, pinned to his ear as he spoke to Armin to come up with a battle plan for the day’s work.

Levi sat at the far end, tapping away at the brand new laptop as the external hard drive hummed quietly at his elbow. Every so often, he’d ask Eren a question about system preferences, working to make the technology transition as easy as possible.

“Aren’t you going to be late?” Eren asked.

Levi shrugged. “Won’t be the first time, won’t be the last.”

His coworkers were going to give him hell.

He couldn’t miss work, however, and ten minutes later, he reached for his briefcase and his phone and nodded to Eren as he got ready to leave. “Remember: Eat. Drink. Take a piss. Stretch.”

Eren snorted. “Alright, alright, I will!” he said, waving Levi off. “Jeez, you’re as bad as Mikasa.”

“Actually,” Levi said as he breezed through the door, “I’m worse.” 

The door clicked shut behind him.

As soon as things were quiet, Eren heard Armin laugh over the phone. “‘As bad as Mikasa,’ huh?” Armin asked.

“Yeah? What of it?” Eren replied. He wasn’t really listening to his friend at this point - something about rewriting a term paper that was due in a matter of hours - but something in Armin’s tone caught his attention.

“Oh, nothing,” Armin snickered. “I just think it’s funny how you’ve managed to find someone more intent on taking care of you than Mikasa is.”

Eren nearly choked on a mouthful of his tea. “What do you mean ‘he’s taking care of me’?” Eren spluttered. “All I’ve been doing is working on my papers!”

“Right,” Armin said archly. “And I should let you get back to that.”

Eren swore he could hear his friend stifling his laughter.

“Armin don’t you _dare_ tell Mikasa about- ”

“Bye, Eren!” Armin chuckled, cutting Eren off. “Good luck with your papers! Don’t get too distracted!”

And before Eren could say anything more to him, Armin hung up. “Seriously?” Eren groaned, watching as the ‘Call Ended’ screen went dark. First Mikasa, now Armin…

If _Jean_ tried calling him out on this, Eren thought, he’d probably have to punch him.

Yet all the denial in the world couldn’t change the tiny jolt that thrummed through him when his phone buzzed an hour later.

**[Text From: Levi]**

Eren picked up his phone and opened his inbox.

 **Levi [8:04:41 AM]:** Stretch.

~~~

_To Do:_  
_Write_  
_\-- Developmental Neuropsychology of Adolescents_  
_\-- Neuroethics_  
_\-- Psych, Law, and Juvenile Justice_  
_\-- Inst. Strategies for Children w/ High Incidence Disabilities_  
_\-- Human Development Across the Lifespan_  
_Eat_  
_Shower?_

The hours leading up to 8 AM on December 20th, the due date for Eren’s term papers, passed somewhat like this: 

Eren wrote. Thanks to Armin’s help, he’d developed a sort of battle-plan, a strategy for transcribing his papers as quickly as humanly possible. So Eren sat at the center of the long conference table and churned through page after page of the copies of his rough drafts, getting up only to stretch, use the restroom, or grab more pages for transcription, fueled by food left by Levi or Anka and a seemingly-endless supply of black tea. When he could, Armin would log onto the shared document and edit, picking out spelling and grammar mistakes Eren had written too quickly to catch. 

~~- _Developmental Neuropsychology of Adolescents_ ~~

Eren wrote. And when he wasn’t writing, he was _thinking_ about writing - rewording odd sentence structures or plotting better concept presentation as he wandered about the room, doing the carpal tunnel stretches Levi reminded him about. For as awful as losing his laptop had been, transcribing his papers, Eren realized, turned out to be an excellent way to edit. 

Maybe next time he wouldn’t have to set his computer on fire to figure that out.

~~- _Psych, Law, and Juvenile Justice_~~

Eren wrote. It got to the point where the words all seemed to blur into one endless stream of consciousness, one thought leading to another and another. Wherever that stream broke - whenever Eren found a section that was rough or jarring - he fixed it, weaving the errant idea back into the flow. It felt oddly soothing. Though he was always aware of the time running down, his progress calmed him. Having a plan calmed him. Having help calmed him. _Writing_ calmed him.

~~- _Inst. Strategies for Children w/ High Incidence Disabilities_ ~~

In the afternoon, Levi came home, ready help in whatever way he could. Dinners were a quick affair, and after the dishes were done he and Eren would bundle up on the couch side-by-side and write together in front of the fire as the hours slipped away. Every so often, Levi would be typing away, lost in thought, only to be pulled back to reality by the sudden weight of Eren’s head drifting sleepily onto his shoulder. Levi would only let it happen so many times before he sent Eren off to bed, shooing the younger man to the guest bedroom before he fell asleep on Levi’s shoulder.

Levi did his best to ignore just how tempting he found the idea to begin with.

~~- _Shower?_ ~~

~~- _Neuroethics_ ~~

Eren never stayed asleep for long, however. He’d be awake again by the time Levi went to bed, and he was up to greet Levi the next morning from where he sat at the table, typing away. “There’s hot water in the kettle for you,” he’d always say.

It never failed to make Levi feel as though the floor had suddenly dropped out from under him in the best way possible.

So it surprised Levi when, on the morning of December 20th, he found Eren fast asleep on the couch. His laptop lay on the coffee table - silent - and beside it, Eren’s to-do list.

~~- _Human Development Across the Lifespan_ ~~

Everything was crossed off.

Levi smiled. “Well done, Eren,” he whispered, unable to keep the fondness from his voice. Taking the blanket from the recliner, he draped it gently over Eren’s sleeping form and left for work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to ChristmasRivers, my beta, for making this chapter more presentable than it was and for reminding me that "there would be a certain irony to being in the middle of writing a fic where one character is reminding another to take care of themselves while writing but neglecting to take care of yourself..."
> 
> Next time: I finally get to the actual prompt. 
> 
> [EDIT]: I lied.


	4. One (Small) Explosion, Five Papers, and Several Good Days of Rest Later

**Levi [11:34:07 AM]:** Hey. The firm is throwing a party for Christmas Eve tomorrow. 

**Levi [11:38:21 AM]:** Do you want to come with me?

Eren stared down at his phone, skimming through the messages one final time before going to stand by the front door to wait, trying - and failing - to keep the smile from his face as he reread his texts from the day before.

 **Eren [11:39:57 AM]:** definitely

 **Eren [11:41:19 AM]:** sounds like fun! :)

 **Levi [11:45:44 AM]:** Great. Can I pick you up around 6?

 **Eren [11:47:21 AM]:** 6 works for me

 **Eren [1:24:38 PM]:** is there a dress code or something? should i bring dessert?

 **Levi [1:28:03 PM]:** No, Erwin’s catering the whole thing. Just bring yourself.

The clock had barely struck noon before Eren had decided that he was too antsy to put off getting ready any longer, and had anyone asked, he would've been too ashamed to admit that he'd spent far more time than he ever believed necessary to prepare. Buzzing with a jittery sort of energy, he had washed and folded an entire load of laundry for the sake of a single button-down shirt, and he'd even gone to the effort of hunting down the iron and looking up a how-to video (thank you, Google) to iron out the wrinkles in his one good pair of slacks. 

_It's not like I'm nervous, though,_ he had assured himself when he had sunk wearily onto the sofa showered, dressed, and coiffed at a quarter past five. It definitely couldn't be nerves - hell, Eren had put less effort into getting ready for his own _prom_ for goodness’ sake.

All the reassurance in the world, however, hadn't stopped him from nearly jumping out of his seat when his phone buzzed a half an hour before Levi was due to arrive.

 **Levi [5:32:13 PM]:** I'll be there at 6.

When he heard a car pull into the parking lot, Eren glanced at his watch - 5:55 PM. Levi barely knocked once before the door opened.

“Hey,” Eren said easily, letting the door swing wide to let Levi in. “Merry Christmas.”

Levi simply stared.

In all the times Levi had seen Eren, the younger man had almost always been dressed in sweats and hoodies - the epitome of finals week fashion - and Levi hadn’t been sure if it was even _possible_ for someone to look good as Eren did in a ratty pair of jeans and a borrowed winter coat. By now Levi was wholeheartedly convinced that if Northwestern didn’t work out - and knowing Eren, that wasn’t even a possibility - Eren could very easily make a small fortune modelling anything from pajamas to heavy winter-wear.

But something about the sight of Eren in black dress slacks and a button down had Levi absolutely speechless.

“Is this too much?” Eren asked, plucking nervously at the hem of a crisp sleeve. “I wasn’t really sure…”

“Ah - right. You look… ah.” Levi rubbed the back of his neck, the words frozen on his tongue. His mouth suddenly felt he’d gone for weeks without water, he had to swallow twice to get his voice to work again. “Great. You look great. Merry Christmas, Eren.”

Eren Jaeger looked better than great. He looked _fantastic_ \- and from the way the blush spilled down his throat at Levi’s words, Levi knew the younger man didn’t have a fucking clue.

“Awesome,” Eren sighed, looking visibly relieved. “All of the Christmas parties I’ve been to have really just been me and a few college buddies playing Halo and drinking cheap beer - I’ve never really done the swanky corporate party thing before.”

“You’ll be fine,” Levi replied. “They may be lawyers, but my coworkers are really all just fucking dorks. Just smile and stay away from Hanji and you’ll survive.”

Eren snorted. “Just follow along with your party expertise and I’ll be a social butterfly in no time?” he asked, shrugging into his coat and jumping slightly when Levi reached around to help him with the other sleeve. The gesture was so nonchalant Eren might have overlooked it - if it hadn’t been for the light touch along Eren’s shoulder that had him quietly wishing for just a little bit more.

But Levi didn’t seem to notice. “I didn’t say anything about butterflies,” he muttered, turning back towards the door. “I said you’d _survive.”_

Eren gulped.

~~~

It was a forty minute drive from Eren’s apartment to the Smith’s family home in uptown Chicago, and Eren spent the entire forty minutes getting tossed between the comfortable conversation and gut-gnawing nerves. In thirty minutes… twenty minutes… ten… he’d be shaking hands with some of the most successful lawyers in the entire city, maybe even the state. He’d probably be the least-educated person there, and he’d almost definitely be the youngest. He wasn’t even sure what he’d even say to any of them. They’d probably think he came as Levi’s…

_...date._

Eren nearly choked, cutting off whatever Levi had been saying with a spluttering cough as he gagged around the saliva he’d nearly inhaled. 

“You alright?” Levi asked, casting a concerned glance at Eren as he worked to catch his breath.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Eren wheezed.

A date. It had been the last thing on his mind when Levi texted him yesterday, but the evening had all the trappings of one - the dinner, the party, meeting his friends… Eren’s mind flashed to the memory of Levi’s face when he’d first opened the door, the feeling of Levi’s hands on his shoulders as he helped Eren into his jacket.

“Levi, is…” _Is this a date?_ Eren cleared his throat once. “Is it alright if I don’t know anyone there?” he finished, swallowing hard around the question he’d almost let slip. 

“Oh. Of course,” Levi answered. “Erwin pretty much extends an open invitation for his parties - coworkers, their spouses, family…” he faltered briefly, “significant others, friends, whoever they want, really.” 

Friends. They could definitely be going as friends - it was a friendly thing to do, going to a party. A fancy party, perhaps, with Levi’s other friends and coworkers, and nice food, and possibly mistletoe, but friends went to parties all the time. They were friends. Eren clung to the thought with a hope so fierce it surprised him.

It was either that or admit that the swarm of butterflies flittering around his stomach had little to do with the party and _everything_ to do with the man who had invited him.

“Besides,” Levi continued. “Most of the office already knows you’re coming.”

Eren turned sharply.

“What?” Levi asked, staring pointedly at the road and looking more than a little bit… guilty. “They asked why I was late one time and…” He stopped, his mouth shutting with an audible pop. It was difficult to tell from the light of the passing street lamps, but Eren almost swore the tips of Levi’s ears had gone darker. “You’re going to be fine,” Levi repeated.

Somehow, it sounded to Eren like Levi was saying it more to reassure himself than anyone else - but Eren didn’t have much time to think about why that might be. With a smooth turn off of Lakeshore Drive, they arrived at Erwin’s.

The Smith family home was a quiet, classic affair - Levi used the word ‘snooty’ - just off the shore of Lake Michigan, and to Eren, everything about the place was stunning. The driveway was lined with neat hedges and stately trees whose branches were wrapped in white lights that twinkled as they drove past. It ended in a wide loop that circled past the front of the house - a grand Victorian-style home, decked for the holidays with a fine dusting of snow and glittering strings of icicle lights dripping from the eaves. On either side of the stairs leading up to the porch stood two tall Christmas trees adorned with red and silver ornaments, twin stewards of the holiday spirit.

“Wow,” Eren breathed, stepping out of the car and turning round, taking in the scene. The halo of all the sparkling lights gave an air of sanctuary to the place, casting the world beyond the towering trees in silhouette and shadow. To Eren, the brilliant chaos of Chicago seemed far, far away - there was only this. The mansion. The music. The party. 

And Levi.

Levi moved as if caught in a spell, staring at Eren - or through him? - with a look Eren could only describe as wonder. Eren found himself struck with an overwhelming sense of shyness, a need to look away, but all the money in the world wouldn’t have been worth the sight of the Christmas lights caught in Levi’s eyes, gleaming like stars.

Levi shook himself quickly. Eren jumped back.

“We should head in,” Levi muttered, looking away. “It’s fucking cold out tonight.”

~~~

They barely made it to the top of the steps before the door swung open.

“Levi!” a tall blond man greeted. Erwin, Eren assumed, if Levi’s descriptions of his friend and ‘unnecessarily presidential’ coworker were to be believed. Levi’s arrival sent a chorus of greetings echoing about the inside of the house.

“Someone’s popular,” Erwin chuckled, ushering the two inside.

“Bullshit,” Levi replied. “They just know I sign the paychecks.”

But he smiled anyways, something Eren caught as Levi moved to direct Erwin’s attention to his guest.

“And who’s this?” Erwin asked, turning to focus on Eren with all the ease and warmth of a practiced host. 

Internally, Levi cringed. While he knew Erwin meant well, all the good intentions in the world couldn’t prevent the weight of the man’s attention from feeling like a two thousand watt spotlight. He should’ve prepared an introduction or something. “Oh,” Levi said quickly, stalling for time. “This is-”

“I’m Eren,” Eren cut in, reaching out for a firm handshake. “Erwin, right? It’s good to meet you; you have a beautiful home.”

And it was true. The interior of the Smith family home quite literally sparkled, the mood of the evening’s festivities reflected in the garland strung about the tables and the glittering chandelier and the ornaments nestled in the branches of the massive evergreen tree standing proudly in the curve of the spiral staircase. Even the guests themselves seemed to shine; light glimmered off their sequined dresses and crisp silk shirts as they spoke amongst themselves or danced to the music of the string quintet playing in the corner.

So in awe was Eren of the scene before him, he missed the subtle rise of Erwin’s eyebrows as the older man shook his hand, surprised - but pleasantly so - by the strength of Eren’s grip and confidence.

“Yes, and thank you, Eren,” Erwin said cordially. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. We’re happy have you here tonight.”

Levi certainly was. Despite his earlier anxieties, Eren took to the party like a bird to the air, mingling with the other guests with an ease and charm that surprised him. He laughed along with Eld’s and Gunter’s jokes and skillfully maneuvered out of an under-the-table drinking game with Pixis, and as he returned his untouched champagne flute to the table, he swept Levi around the room.

 _Look at you,_ Levi thought breathlessly, watching Eren introduce himself to Petra’s and Auruo’s two young daughters so gallantly it made both girls blush.

“Oh! Are you the writer?” Petra asked. She looked positively radiant tonight, dressed in a sequined sheath gown that spilled over one shoulder and cascaded effortlessly to the floor, and Eren had told her so, earning a glowing smile from Petra and an eager nod of agreement from Auruo. “I’d love to read your work. Levi was telling me about your stories and said you were amazing!”

_Look at you. You haven’t even been here an hour and you’re already the life of the party… and then look at me._

Eren looked over to Levi and beamed, stopping Levi’s thoughts in their tracks.

“I think he could be exaggerating,” Eren replied, looking sheepish, a faint flush rising on his cheeks and coloring the tips of his ears.

“I would _never,”_ Levi retorted.

Everyone laughed.

“This is great,” Eren exclaimed. “Are the parties like this every year?” 

“Oh yeah, every year,” Auruo replied, sidling up to Eren and Levi as his wife brushed powdered sugar from her daughters’ cheeks. “Erwin can always be counted on to throw a good party or two - he's got great style. I like it. It's all very classy, the butlers, the crystal, the chandelier… Say, honey, what do you think about getting a chandelier?”

“Uh-huh, sure dear,” Petra said absently, aiming a knowing smile at Levi.

“Papa, dance with me,” Stephanie said. Small hands wrapped around the creases of Auruo’s slacks and tugged insistently. 

“Is it that time again?” Auruo asked, winking playfully at his wife. 

“Yes,” Cass said primly. “It is. You gotta put on your dancing shoes.” 

“Oh dear. Honey, did you bring my dancing shoes?” 

Petra shrugged, smiling.

“Papa, you're _wearing_ your dancing shoes!” Steph declared, bending over to pat the leather tops of Auruo’s oxfords, her dress billowing out around her in swathes of green chiffon. “Dance with us.”

“Yeah, dance with us!”

Auruo laughed aloud. “Well, if you insist.” Leaning down, he took a hold of the girls’ hands and assumed a very serious expression. “Would you two fine lovely ladies do me the honor of joining me for this dance?”

“Yes!” they cried in unison.

“They ask him every time,” Petra said, smiling wistfully as she watched her husband lead their daughters to the dance floor. “You wouldn’t know it, but he’s a surprisingly good dancer - once you get over his two left feet.” 

“Do you dance?” Eren murmured, following her gaze.

“Oh, we both do. It’s how we met!” Petra replied. “I was a Dance minor, you know, and he joined the ballroom club the day before my competition partner broke his ankle in an accident. He offered to help me as soon as he found out - we even competed later that month.”

“Did you win?” Eren asked. 

Petra snorted. “Not even close. We were terrible, came second to last…” Her smile grew fond. “But I loved every minute of it, and we’ve been partners ever since.”

“I didn’t know that,” Levi murmured thoughtfully.

Petra nodded. “We don’t do a lot of dancing anymore, unfortunately. I really sort of miss it, but between the girls and work, it’s hard to find a free moment to dress up and go out like we used to.”

“Well, you’ve got a great opportunity now,” Eren noted. Levi and Petra looked at him. “Mrs. Bozado,” Eren continued, “may I have the pleasure of this dance?” 

“You can dance?” Levi asked.

“Not even a little bit,” Eren grinned. “But it’d be my honor to learn,” he said to Petra, offering a hand and a dashing smile.

Petra laughed, the sound high and clear. “And I’d be happy to teach you, Eren,” she replied. “If you’re even a little bit more coordinated than my husband, I’ll have you waltzing in no time.”

And with one last buoyant smile in Levi’s direction, they were off.

Left to his own devices for a moment, Levi surveyed the rest of the party. The evening seemed to be going perfectly; guests were eating, chatting, and dancing, Mike had made no moves to make any… _untoward_ comments to Eren yet, choosing instead to wander the great hall with Nanaba, who looked stunning as always in a deep red dress. Hanji was nowhere to be found.

Try as he might, however, Levi couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of Eren. He and Petra had moved to the corner of the room, by the string quintet, and Eren’s brow furrowed in concentration as Petra slowly walked him through the steps of her dance out of time with the music. He struggled a little - and tripped more than once - but every time he did so he wound up laughing, the sound rich and lively and low enough to cut through the babble of the party and work its way to Levi, where it settled over his shoulders and filled him with warmth.

“Aren’t you glad I told you to invite him?” someone said from behind Levi.

Levi jumped, looking to see Hanji sauntering around from behind him, finally appearing from wherever they had been hiding - probably waiting for a moment just like this one. “I was already going to invite him,” Levi retorted. “Eren is my-” 

The words died on Levi’s tongue. _Eren is my…_

“Oh? What was that, Levi?” 

“He’s my friend,” Levi grit out. “We’re _friends.”_

“Friends, huh?” Hanji grinned, looking for all the world like a cat who’d just found cream. “Do you get all your friends brand-new laptops?”

Levi recoiled. _“How,”_ he demanded.

Completely unphased, Hanji simply reached into the pocket of their suit jacket and handed Levi a slip of paper - the receipt for Eren’s computer. “This fell out of your pocket,” they replied, “the morning after you showed up late for the second day in a row. You, Levi, showing up late.”

“Everyone is late sometimes,” Levi grumbled.

“Don’t pull that with me; you’ve never been late a day in your life,” Hanji countered. “It was for him, wasn't it?”

“Yes,” Levi said slowly.

“And so was the laptop?” Hanji pressed.

“...Yes,” Levi said again.

“Just as I suspected,” Hanji said, nodding thoughtfully. “I brought that,” they pointed to the receipt in Levi’s hands, “because I wondered if you’d bring your special friend tonight.”

“He did,” Mike confirmed, appearing out of nowhere with a smug grin on his face. “It’s definitely him - I could smell the tea-tree oil from twenty feet away.”

“Get out of here, you ass,” Levi grumbled.

Mike chuckled quietly. “Also, if you haven’t exchanged Christmas gifts yet, I recommend getting him a nice cologne - something on the woody side, maybe clove…”

He only stopped when Levi aimed an elbow at his ribs, a half-hearted strike Mike easily dodged before sauntering off again, leaving Levi looking flustered and Hanji bent double, shaking with stifled laughter.

“Shut up,” Levi muttered. 

Hanji’s expression softened, their laughter quieting down. “You really like him, don’t you Levi,” they murmured gently.

Levi was silent for a moment, watching Eren lead Petra around the center of the dance floor in a wonky - yet passable - waltz.

“I do,” Levi whispered. “I really do.”

“Good,” Hanji said softly. “I’m glad, Levi; it’s been a long time since you’ve-”

“Hanji Zoe, if you tell me it’s been too long since I’ve dated,” Levi muttered, “I will cheerfully hand you your ass.”

Hanji’s grin was positively wicked.

“All I’m saying is that I’m happy for you,” they replied, taking a step out of reach of Levi’s elbows. “You seem… happier, lately.”

Levi didn’t have a response to that.

When Eren returned later, dreadfully dizzy and a little short of breath, he found Levi nursing a flute of sparkling cider and pecking at a small plate of Christmas cookies, looking thoughtful all the while. 

“Well aren’t you the life of the party,” Eren teased, picking a cookie from Levi’s plate and settling in beside him.

“Always,” Levi intoned solemnly. “It’s why Erwin invites me.”

Eren snorted. The cookie left traces of powdered sugar on the pads of Eren’s fingertips and Levi handed him a napkin without a second thought.

“Well, I’m glad he invites you,” Eren decided, taking the napkin gratefully and polishing the powder from his fingers. “And I’m glad you invited me,” he added. 

_“You really like him, don’t you Levi.”_

“I’ve had a really great time tonight so… Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Levi replied quietly. “I’m glad you came. It meant-”

A small bell began to chime.

“Good evening, everyone,” Erwin called, moving to stand at the foot of the spiral staircase. “It has been an absolute pleasure to have you all here tonight; I hope each and every one of you have had a wonderful evening.”

Cheers and a smattering of applause rose from the crowd of guests.

“It’s that time of year again,” Erwin continued formally. “A time for closeness, a time for cheer - a time to gather with our loved ones and celebrate what truly matters most.”

“I didn’t know the State of the Union address was going to be given so early this year,” Eren said under his breath.

Levi snorted.

“And so, as the hour nears midnight, let us raise our glasses and toast the holiday and all the joy it brings - our family, our friendships, our loved ones, and most of all: our most esteemed friend and coworker…”

Levi groaned. “Every _fucking_ year.”

“...Levi Ackerman.”

The grandfather clock struck twelve.

“Happy birthday, Levi!” the party guests cheered. A handful of poppers went off simultaneously, showering the room in streamers and glitter as people exchanged their ‘merry Christmases’ and came up to Levi to wish him a happy birthday.

Eren turned on Levi, who wore an expression torn between annoyance and guilt. “It’s your birthday?” Eren demanded.

“...Technically,” Levi muttered, blushing even as he thanked another guest for their well-wishes.

“There is no ‘technically’ about birthdays,” Eren replied. 

Levi sighed. “Then yes, it’s my birthday.”

“I didn’t get you anything,” Eren murmured. He looked distraught. 

“You - thank you very much, Nifa, you’re very kind - you really didn’t have to, Eren,” Levi said, distracted. “Just having you here was enough… More than enough, really.”

It took a moment for the words to sink in.

And then they _did_ sink in, and Levi and Eren stared at each other, frozen by the weight of Levi’s comment. Before Levi could backtrack, however, Eren’s expression broke into a determined grin.

“Nope,” Eren said. “Not gonna cut it. I’m gonna make it up to you.”

“Eren…”

“Levi,” Eren said firmly. “Accept it. It’s your birthday.”

“So how about a little birthday kiss,” Hanji crowed, “since you two are under the mistletoe?”

Eren and Levi looked up simultaneously, noticing in horror that Hanji had told the truth - a bundle of mistletoe had been nestled into a strand of garland overhead. Moving on instinct, Levi took a step back just as Eren hopped forward, 

_Too close._ Eren’s arms were everywhere, wrapping around Levi protectively even as he tried to recapture his balance - _Eren_ was everywhere, his warmth, his touch, the scent of laundry detergent and tea-tree shampoo, and Levi staggered under Eren’s weight and Eren’s presence, sudden and overwhelming and - 

Levi’s upturned palms caught Eren’s shoulders and he pushed, quickly righting himself and steadying Eren just before they began to fall. The people watching laughed, but Levi didn’t hear it. He was too busy watching the blush rise on Eren’s cheeks and the bashful smile he offered as he straightened up and stepped away - out of the range of Levi and the mistletoe.

They avoided that spot for the rest of the night.

~~~

They didn’t get home until well after 2AM, but as soon as he said his goodbyes to Levi, Eren toed out of his shoes, tossed his dress clothes over the back of his chair, and sank wearily onto the bed.

His _birthday._ How could Eren not have known it was Levi’s birthday? He’d had practically the whole month to ask. And all he’d done when he finally found out was gape like a fish out of water. Eren groaned, falling back onto the bed with his face in his hands.

He had to do something. Christmas would last another twenty two hours or so - plenty of time to come up with a good idea for a gift. And Levi had promised he’d be over later that day. He had, after all, promised Mikasa that he’d keep the apartment in tip-top shape, and there was currently an electrical outlet that needed to be replaced, a tabletop to repaint, and a scorched wall that needed to be covered up before Mikasa arrived and noticed. Perfect time to deliver the gift.

But _what_ to give him? The longer he thought about it, the harder the question seemed. From the day Eren had met Levi, the man had been nothing but exceedingly practical in both thought and life. His dress, his apartment, his car - everything as fine as necessary, and no finer. He splurged on nothing, except maybe his tea - and a gift like that was light-years out of Eren’s price-range anyways.

...What did you give a man who had the means to buy whatever he wanted?

The pocket of Eren’s slacks lit up as his phone buzzed briefly, humming against the back of the desk chair. Though his danced-out feet protested, Eren stood with a quiet grunt and went to see what it was. 

**[Text From: Levi]**

Eren opened it.

 **Levi [2:49:31 AM]:** Home safe.

Just as he was about to put his phone down, it buzzed again in his palm.

 **Levi [2:50:18 AM]:** Thank you for coming. It meant a lot.

Eren smiled. The party really had been wonderful - sweeter, even, than he had expected - and if Eren was being honest with himself, while some of that had to do with the lights and the people and the dancing, most of it was because he had been there with Levi.

 **Eren [2:52:58 AM]:** I’m glad you got back safe. I had a great time

 **Eren [2:53:19 AM]:** Also happy birthday. Again. Goodnight Levi :)

 **Levi [2:55:32 AM]:** Goodnight, Eren.

As Eren moved to set his phone down, his eyes settled on his little black notebook, still lying where he had put it after coming back from Levi’s on the morning of the twentieth.

_“I was thinking about some sort of post-apocalypse story.”_

Levi had listened to every single one of Eren’s stories.

_“It could have monsters – huge, nearly unbeatable monsters – and the people have been driven behind these massive walls… ”_

And he’d even shared them, telling Anka and Petra and Auruo about them, saying he thought Eren would be a published author someday. Words that meant more to Eren than Levi could ever know.

_“The only stories I’d be interested in being in are stories that involve me running a tea-shop somewhere where it doesn’t snow.”_

Eren grinned. 

He could do that.

Flipping through his notebook, Eren pulled his laptop from the desk, settled back into his blankets, and began to write.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday, Teeks! I honestly didn't mean for the birthday chapter to line up as perfectly as it did with your own birthday, but I'm very happy it did. <3 I hope you have a beautiful day ~ I'm very happy and very lucky to call you my friend and I'm so glad something as silly as a mutual enjoyment of a handful of characters could bring such a wonderful friendship into my life.
> 
> Also, as a bit of an unintentional birthday gift, have a fifth chapter, because I thought I would be getting to the actual prompt and I _didn't._ I had three more scenes to this chapter but the party scene got so long, I couldn't fit the rest without blowing the word count out of the water. So. :') I hope y'all will stick with me for one more chapter.


	5. A Little Sugar Never Hurt Anyone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A special thanks to you, Teeks, for coming up with an idea so inspiring it pulled me out of my post-semester slump, and for becoming a wonderful friend along the way ~ I truly appreciate having you in my life, and I hope this story brings a smile to your face! And as always, a huge tight hug for my amazing (and very patient and understanding) beta, @ChristmasRivers; I wouldn't be the writer I am today without your friendship (and your ass-kicking beta-style X'D). <3<3<3 
> 
> And to you, Reader, thank you all so much for all the support and kind words you've given me as I worked to complete this project ~ sharing this story was a real joy. 
> 
> END NOTE:

_It’s true what they say,_ Mikasa thought to herself as she climbed the stairs to her apartment. _Flying on Christmas sucks, but you'll never get out of O’Hare faster._ Thanks to the holiday lull, the fare had been cheap and airport had been significantly quieter. Even traffic from Chicago had been lighter than usual - a true Christmas miracle - allowing her to arrive back at the apartment complex in the early afternoon on Christmas Day. Balancing her bags in one hand, Mikasa pulled the key from her pocket, slid it into the lock, and let herself into the apartment, happy to be home after her trip.

Leaving her bags by the door, she peered into the living room and was pleased to find it clean, the chaos of Eren’s term papers finally over. She was surprised, however, to find the room empty; after moving out of his father’s house, Eren had been adamant about celebrating each and every holiday with his own unique flair, spurning the staunchly classic Christmases of his childhood for gaudily decorated palm trees and wild rounds of video games. Armin, Jean, and Connie always arrived immediately after their family festivities - though Armin wouldn't be arriving from Germany until later that day, _surely_ the others had already arrived…

But the apartment was quiet.

“Hmm.”

She turned from the living room and walked to the kitchen.

Spotless. The kitchen was absolutely spotless, every visible surface gleaming in the afternoon sunshine that streamed from crystal-clear windows and pooled on the tile floor. Mikasa hadn't seen the place so clean since the day she first stepped foot in the apartment, maybe not even then.

Levi had been here, clearly. Her cousin was the only person in the world who would turn “house-sitting” into a chance to play Cinderella. _He probably even wore that little mask of his,_ she mused, pausing to slip her purse off her shoulder and set it on the table.

As she did so, something caught her eye.

The tip of a singed, blackened scar was just barely visible on the table’s surface, mostly hidden underneath a placemat that could only have been set there by Eren - no table set by Levi would include the mismatched retro Batman & Robin mat, so oddly askance that it could only have been set there to purposely cover the burned wood she found underneath. Nor did she believe that her cousin chose to plaster Eren's beloved _“Nightwing is a Dick!”_ poster in the middle of the kitchen wall, even if it did look marginally better than the scorched paint beneath it.

Eren had some explaining to do.

~~~

The sound of someone knocking had Eren stirring lightly, but he woke with a jolt when his bedroom door burst open.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” Mikasa declared, moving to sit on the edge of Eren’s bed as Eren yanked the blankets up to his shoulders. With her heavy sweater and her legs tucked beneath her, Mikasa looked decidedly cat-like, all the way down to the predatory look in her eyes, sharp and inescapable. “Have something to tell me?”

“Uh.” Eren swallowed, watching her warily. “Welcome home?”

Mikasa nodded at the greeting before pointedly pressing on. “Something else? About my kitchen, specifically?”

Eren thought for a moment, the silence stretching longer as he forced his sleep-deprived brain to process. “Oh! Yeah, Levi bought the groceries. We finished off a lot of the fruit before you got back - didn't want it going bad - but there should be enough stuff for another week of meals… So…” Eren slowly drifted into silence as he noticed Mikasa staring at him, a fine eyebrow arching higher and higher with every word he spoke. “Okay,” he relented, “what did I do?”

“There is _fire damage_ in my _kitchen,”_ Mikasa said slowly. “Care to tell me what happened?”

Eren's eyes grew wide, all signs of exhaustion draining in an instant. “Oh shit,” he breathed, sitting up quickly and running a hand through his hair. “What time is it? Levi said he'd be coming over to help me paint that-”

“Eren!” Mikasa demanded, cutting him off. “What caught fire? Was anyone hurt?”

“No!” Eren said. “No, everything's fine; I'm fine, Levi wasn't here, no one got hurt. My laptop caught fire,” he explained, feeling mildly guilty at the shock in Mikasa’s expression - he’d only told her that his laptop crashed, specifically leaving out _how_ out of worry that she'd freak out… much like she was doing now. “I handled it,” he added quickly. “Used the fire extinguisher and everything, shut the power off, everything was fine. Levi even replaced my laptop and helped me rewrite all my papers, we met up every morning and I'd write at his place… _What?"_

Mikasa was staring. "He bought you... a laptop?"

“Yes?” Eren replied, suddenly uncertain. Mikasa’s expression gave nothing away - besides the thoughtful quirk of her brow, she remained impassive as she studied him intently for a long moment.

“...Did you make my cousin your sugar daddy?”

“What?! No!” he spluttered. “Fuck, _Mikasa,_ just… _no._ Oh my god… Levi is my friend,” Eren said. “We’re just friends.”

“But you think he's cute,” she pointed out.

Eren looked at her oddly. “I… I mean, yeah, that’s not the first word I’d go for, but I guess, yeah, he's cute.” And thoughtful. And patient. And built as _fuck._

“And he buys you things.”

“...yes.”

Mikasa paused, considering. “...so my cousin is basically your sugar daddy.”

“Mika, _no.”_

“Eren, just… _think!_ ”

Eren thought. He thought about the spotless kitchen and the well-stocked fridge, thought about the once-barren pantry that now housed what he realized must be several hundred dollars of groceries. He thought about the sleek new laptop sitting on his bed and the battery he had stored in the drawer of his desk for safekeeping and the external harddrive that now served as the collecting place for all of his writing. He thought about ice-skating on the hidden pond and the party and all the nights he and Levi had stayed up sitting in front of the fireplace and the many mornings Levi had gone into work late, spending his very expensive time on Eren without a second thought over and over again...

“Fuck,” Eren whispered.

Mikasa nodded to herself, seemingly satisfied. “Kitchen repairs are on you two,” she said, getting up and walking out of the room. “I’ve had two good years here without an accident; I'm not losing my deposit on this place now.”

Eren didn't respond, still speechless over the suddenness of his epiphany, but when Mikasa turned to close the door behind her, she could still hear the impact of the realization ringing in another profound, thunderstruck,

_“Fuck.”_

~~~

An hour later, Mikasa left for Chicago, heading back to the airport to wait for Armin’s flight to arrive. Her only parting words to Eren were, “the _kitchen,_ please.”

Eren took the hint. By the time Mikasa left the apartment, Eren had dressed - sort of - and moved most of the furniture and kitchenware to the living room, taking down his Nightwing poster with a wry grin. Drop-cloths sprawled across the linoleum tile floor, wrinkling in places where they were too big to fit the tiny kitchen and pooling over the edges of the kitchen table, which he and Levi decided would also need to be resanded and given a fresh coat of paint as well.

 _Levi…_ Eren leaned against table, carding his fingers through his hair. Levi was due to arrive any minute now with the paint and the roller brushes, and all he could think about were Mikasa’s teasing accusations from earlier and the manuscript laying on his desk, printed and bound in the not-so-early hours of the morning. He could only hope that Levi would like it - and that the typos weren't too bad. There were bound to be a few.

**[Text From: Levi]**

Too late to check now.

 **Levi [2:49:31 PM]:** On my way up.

Eren felt his stomach flip. Pushing himself off the table, he made for his room, dodging kitchen chairs and displaced furniture as he went. If he listened hard enough, he could almost hear Levi’s footsteps on the stairs outside - or maybe that was just his pulse, which had suddenly ramped into overdrive.

_“Is my cousin your sugar daddy?”_

Swallowing hard, Eren shoved the thought out of his head and grabbed the manuscript just as the doorbell rang.

~~~

_“Coming!”_

Even outside, Levi could hear Eren running to get the door, the urgent rhythm of his footsteps matching the pattern Levi’s fingers tapped out on the curves of the paint bucket he held in his hands. The lock rattled briefly - Eren fumbled it twice - before the door swung open.

Levi nearly dropped the paint.

Eren stood at the door wearing long sleeves, a flustered expression, and some of the shortest shorts Levi had ever seen, revealing long, toned, tanned legs.

 _Did he get those shorts from the eighties?_ Levi wondered, distantly aware that time was passing as he looked down the curve of Eren’s thighs, the taut lines of his calves, the wisps of fine hair at his ankles, and then looked all the way back up. Sometime between the moment Eren had opened the door and now, he had forgotten how to breathe. _...Damn,_ he thought. _The things I’d like to do to those legs, if he let me._

At the same time, another part of his mind reminded him, _His face is up there, dipshit._

Levi snapped his head up.

“Hey, Levi,” Eren said, sounding slightly out of breath as he held the door open wide. He grimaced slightly as the cold air hit his bare skin and a flush spilled down his cheeks as he remembered - far, _far_ too late - what he was wearing: a pair of running shorts, in the blue and brilliant orange of his high school cross country team. His only thought as he had rushed to dress that afternoon had been that he needed to change into real pants later; that, hey, at least they weren’t boxers.’

They were so much worse.

“Hi,” Levi replied, snapping Eren from his thoughts. _Did his voice really sound that hoarse?_ Levi wondered. He swallowed. “I brought the paint.”

Eren smiled. “I can see that,” he said, moving around Levi to close the door and direct Levi to the kitchen. “Thank you, uh… I have something for you too.”

There on the table lay Eren’s manuscript, hand-bound in red thread. On the cardstock cover, Eren had used crisp black ink to write the title: _To You, Two Thousand Years From Now._

“I wasn't sure what to get you for your birthday,” Eren said, watching as Levi set the paint down on the table and picked up the manuscript, tracing a thumb over the strong, even binding in quiet admiration before opening the front cover.

“You wrote this?” Levi asked.

“Last night, yeah,” Eren replied, looking away. “Because, you know, you said that if you were a character in a story, you’d want to be in a story where you could sell your tea somewhere warm. So… I did. Just with a lot more in the beginning.” He laughed nervously. “Had to make a story out of it, you know?”

The expression on Levi’s face “Would you like me to read it now?” he asked quietly.

Eren shrugged. “It’s not too long. You don’t have to.”

 _Too late,_ Levi thought to himself, his gaze settling on the top of the first page, letting the spell of Eren’s words coax him into a world of giants and danger - and he was in the middle of it all, saving lives and slaying monsters and then exploring the world beyond towering walls, each scene a shard of a story that swept Levi in its tide, all the way to the dedication in the final line.

“Happy Birthday, Kevi?” Levi asked wryly.

“Fuck!”

Levi chuckled. “I knew what you meant,” he said. Then, even softer, he added, “...thank you. I really like it.”

“You’re welcome,” Eren replied shyly. “I’m glad.”

The silence that followed hung heavily with anticipation - and neither Eren nor Levi knew what to do about it. Eren swallowed, nudging one of the wrinkles in the dropcloth with his toe, unsure of how to continue. Levi looked away - only to find his attentions inescapably drawn once again to Eren’s shorts. Eren fidgeted absently at the hem, winding his fingers into the fabric and revealing more of his seemingly endless legs, the exposed sliver a few shades lighter than the rest of thighs from the lack of sun exposure and striking against the warm caramel color of his skin. Levi felt his fingers twitch.

“So!” Eren said, speaking so suddenly that Levi jumped, his face flushing like he’d been caught committing a crime. Eren clapped his hands together. “Painting!”

“Right.” Levi nodded quickly. “Painting. I brought the paint - it’s right here.”

Grateful for the opportunity to look at anything that wasn’t Eren, he ducked down and grabbed the paint from the floor and moved it to the table. While unwrapped the rollers, Eren set about searching for a screwdriver to open the can of paint. After a minute of rummaging through the drawers, he finally found what he was looking for, rolled up his sleeves, and turned to open the paint can with a metallic _pop._

Levi stilled.

“Levi…” Eren murmured.

“Hmm?” As noncommittal a sound as possible. As if Levi hadn’t known this was coming.

“...This paint is green.”

It took everything Levi had to go back to unwrapping the paint rollers with as much nonchalance as he could muster. “It is,” he replied.

“Why?”

“It's a good color for a kitchen,” he muttered. The tips of his ears turned red as he spoke, and Eren found he had the strangest urge to touch them, to trace his fingers over their curves.

He gripped the lid of the can tighter, pressing his fingers hard against the rounded metal rim.

“It's supposed to be a good color for creativity,” Levi continued. “So you can write.”

Eren hesitated. “I don’t think we can paint the apartment green, Levi. I think there’s a fine for that.”

“There is,” Levi said, trying to look innocent and failing spectacularly as a light flush spilled across across his cheeks and slipped under his collar. “I just spoke to the landlady.”

“About?” Eren prompted.

“The fee.” Levi shuffled a bit. “I paid it in advance.”

A thick bead of paint dripped onto Eren’s hand.

 _“Is my cousin your sugar daddy?”_ The words hung perilously on the tip of Eren’s tongue, they echoed in his ears, over and over and over. If he tried to speak, they’d break free - and he couldn’t let that happen.

“I… probably should’ve asked first,” Levi muttered. The air felt thick and strangely warm, and he found himself fidgeting, squeezing the paint rollers and picking anxiously at the plastic wrapping as he waited for Eren to respond. “Shit, I didn’t even realize it until I got here that I don’t even know if you like _green -”_

“Are you trying to be my sugar daddy?” Eren blurted.

The paint rollers fell to the floor with a loud clatter. _“What?”_ Levi choked out.

“A… a sugar daddy,” Eren repeated, flushing all the way to his ears. “‘Cause you really don’t have to do that - I already like you a lot and I like you for _you_ and -”

Eren’s words screeched to a sudden halt. Levi stared.

“I like you,” Eren said, this time with finality. Squaring his shoulders, he lifted his chin and looked Levi straight in the eyes, his stare unwavering and sure.

Levi nodded mutely.

“I think I’ve liked you for a while,” Eren continued, “and not because of the money thing, though that has been appreciated, I just…” he ran a hand - the paint-free one, mercifully - through his hair. “I like you because of how caring you are. To me. To Mikasa. To your friends, even when they tease you. You even talk to Anka every morning on your way out to work, you ask her about her family and how her night classes are going - she tells me, you know? And -”

Levi held up his hand. Eren’s mouth snapped shut.

“You…” Levi didn't know what to say - hearing those words coming out of Eren's mouth went beyond he ever thought to hope for. Warmth flooded through him, soft as candlelight and lighter than air, and as he searched for the right thing to say he couldn't decide if he felt like he was falling or flying.

Perhaps it was a little of both.

“...you _like_ me?” Levi finally asked. Eren nodded. Levi swallowed. “But… But I like _you,”_ Levi insisted.

“I'm happy to hear that,” Eren chuckled. His smile had Levi wondering how his heart hadn't already stopped. “Good thing we can like each other at the same time, right?”

“Right,” Levi replied hoarsely.

“And I’m sorry for putting you on the spot like this,” Eren said, looking downright bashful as he spoke. “Mikasa said something earlier - she was probably just kidding now that I think about it, but…”

“I didn't mean to come off like… Like some sort of sugar daddy,” Levi murmured, “...though I can see how my cousin may have come to that conclusion.” He smiled sheepishly. “I wouldn't try to buy you.”

“I know,” Eren replied.

“But…” Levi continued. The sensation of falling hadn't left him, but he wasn't afraid - only elated, a strange mixture of giddy and nervous and bold. “But I would like to try to be your boyfriend,” he finished. "If that's okay."

It was Eren’s turn to stare, but he quickly broke into a smile. “It's definitely okay. I'd like that,” he murmured.

“You would?”

“I would,” Eren replied. “And you know what else I'd like?”

Levi looked at him quizzically. “What?”

“If you kissed me,” Eren grinned.

Levi stepped forward, warily avoiding the wrinkled drop-cloth on the floor as he crossed the tiny kitchen in a few careful steps. His fingers brushed against Eren’s wrist, slowly taking the paint-covered lid from his grasp and setting it aside.

“You have paint on your hand,” Levi said quietly.

Eren looked. The droplet that had fallen from the paint lid had left a green line from the edge of his palm to the back of his hand. He watched it slip further down his wrist before it collected at his wrist bone, paused for a moment, and then dripped onto his thigh.

Levi moved slowly, taking Eren’s hand in his and smearing the paint with his thumb as he leaned in and Eren bent forward. Levi watched in wonder as Eren’s eyes drifted closed, the corners of his lips twitching upwards in a smile as they met in the middle for a tentative kiss. When Levi drew back, Eren opened his eyes.

“Like that?” Levi whispered.

“Kinda,” Eren replied, his lips curving into a lopsided grin. “I was thinking something more along the lines of _this.”_

With his free hand, Eren reached up and wove his fingers gently into Levi’s hair, tugging him closer. The table groaned slightly as Eren leaned back into it, taking Levi with him as he pulled him into another kiss, this one eager and more insistent, Eren’s lips pressing enthusiastically to Levi’s own. Levi’s hand slipped down Eren’s wrist, leaving a streak of pale green across his skin before letting go and moving to cup Eren’s jaw. Eren jumped at the sensation of paint sliding across his chin.

“Is that how it’s gonna be?” Eren asked wryly, reaching down and feeling around blindly until he found the upturned paint lid and pressed his hand in the paint. “May I?” he asked, a wicked look gleaming in his eyes.

Levi sighed in acceptance. “I guess it’s only fair,” he said, dipping his own fingers into the paint bucket. “But you’re cleaning up the mess.”

“Let me make one first,” Eren smirked.

Eren reached out to touch Levi, placing one hand on Levi’s chest and the other at the base of his neck, and he watched hungrily as the green paint stained the fabric of Levi’s shirt and colored the pale skin of his throat. Levi brushed his hands over Eren’s forearms and then reached for his hips as Eren slid his hands up to cup Levi’s face and kiss him again. Levi sighed into the kiss, his breath hitching as Eren’s thumbs traced across his cheekbones, the smear of the paint slippery and cool on his skin, the press of Eren’s kisses warm and eager against his lips.

Distracted as he was, Levi failed to notice exactly _where_ his hands had wandered until Eren groaned quietly into their kiss, moving to catch Levi’s hands where they were gripped around the middle of Eren’s thighs.

“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry,” Levi said, trying to step away. “Is this okay?”

Eren pinned Levi’s hands down. “More than okay,” he muttered, his voice uneven as he noticed the green stripes Levi had painted across his legs, crooked lines left by errant fingers along the sides of his thighs.

Levi felt dizzy. Moving without really thinking, he tried to brush the paint off Eren’s leg and found himself lost in the sight of the paint smearing across Eren’s skin. He slid his hands out from Eren’s grasp and let them wander again, skimming through the sparse hairs and running his fingers down, down, down… curling around Eren’s thighs to the underside of his knees, leaving streaks of green wherever he touched.

“I’m so fucked,” Levi whispered.

Levi sank to his knees, his ears ringing with the sound of Eren’s groan as he settled himself between Eren’s legs and placed a kiss against the inside of Eren’s knee before casting a questioning look up to Eren.

“Holy shit,” Eren choked out.

With Eren’s hands on his shoulders - carefully avoiding getting paint in Levi’s hair - Levi began kissing along Eren’s thigh, following the inner slope up and down Eren’s leg while he curled his fingers around the outer curves and squeezed. Eren’s fingers knotted into the fabric of Levi’s shirt, and he tossed his head back and panted openly when Levi nipped gently at his skin.

“Levi,” Eren breathed, his voice already becoming ragged and strained. “Keep going. _Please.”_

“Yeah?” Levi grunted. He traced the tip of his nose higher up Eren’s thigh, teasing him as he showered every exposed bit of skin with heated kisses.

 _“Yes,_ Levi, I -”

Just then, the front door rattled. A key _“shnicked”_ into the lock.

Eren jolted and Levi jumped back, getting as far away from the other as possible as the front door swung open and Mikasa walked in, shrugging out of her coat and kicking off her boots before discovering the mess in the kitchen.

Nobody moved.

“M-Mika!” Eren exclaimed, running a paint-covered hand across the back of his neck. “I didn’t know you’d be back so soon - we’ve just started!”

Mikasa raised an eyebrow, looking between Eren and Levi with an unreadable expression on her face. The kitchen walls were incriminatingly bare, the only sign of fresh paint found all over Eren… and Levi...

For a long moment, no one spoke.

“I…” Mikasa said quietly, “am going out. Eren - you’re still on for getting the painting done. Eventually. Levi...” She paused. “Merry Christmas.”

And with that, she pulled her boots back on, grabbed her coat, and walked right back out the door.

Levi looked at Eren. Eren looked at Levi.

“So…” Levi said slowly. “...Where were we?”

Eren grinned. “You were just kissing your boyfriend,” he replied.

“Was I?”

“You were,” Eren affirmed. “And you should do it again.”

Levi nodded and Eren pulled him closer. The kitchen wasn’t going to be painted any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap ~ but there's something bigger coming! I have begun posting my next Ereri fic, and it is a wild ride from start to finish. If you liked my writing here, please check out my newest fic, [The Marian Candidate](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7341163/chapters/16676029), a story with adventure, spies, intrigue, and mystery - and a slowburn romance between Levi, a disillusioned Sinan prince, and Eren Jaeger, the mysterious ambassador from the rival kingdom of Maria, and neither of them are truly what they seem... ;D
> 
> The next chapter will come out on July 6th, this Wednesday, so please be sure to subscribe! Your kind words and support mean more than I can say, and I'd love to share this next story with you! Thank you for reading! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of [this](http://tanekore.tumblr.com/post/135202346278/luninosity-luninosity-overhead-while-walking) post by the lovely [Tanekore](http://tanekore.tumblr.com/), whose musings turned into a rather irresistible prompt that felt like a good way to celebrate the end of my own semester.


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